At Berth in the Sky
by Ugly Kitten
Summary: AU, Kingdom HeartsXTsubasa. Sora, Riku, and Kairi find themselves aboard a stolen pirate's ship with five complete strangers! With nothing but a key and a legend, can they find Sakura's feather before the pirates do? Pairings TBD.
1. A Curious Key

I wonder if anybody missed me. - Okay, okay, I KNOW at least some of ya'll missed me. Well…how to put this…I'm back. Oh, yeah. Sorry to have suddenly vanished on ya'll. I kinda lost track of things and this and that and…ya'll know how things get.

But WOW just look at the site! It's changed a bit since I was here last…ooh, what's this button do…? XD I'm gonna be exploring here for a bit, yah! So, now that we're on the same page here…

Welcome to my newest story, a crossover between Kingdom Hearts and Tsubasa…with a few little twists, of course!

Title: At Berth in the Sky

Summary: Sora is a cabin boy, working aboard the _Valiant_ with his best friends, Riku (fellow cabin boy) and Kairi (ship's cook). The _Valiant_ was infamous for never having been boarded by pirates—until now. The Captain entrusts a small key to Sora, and the trio watches in horror as all those on board are killed and the ship commandeered. Now aboard the pirate's ship, Sora, Riku, and Kairi are off to find out where the key fits. Little do they know the perils along the way.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Tsubasa. Kingdom Hearts is owned by Squaresoft and Disney, and Tsubasa is owned by CLAMP. I do not profit from this story at all, only for my love of writing is it here at all. XP So back off, ye mangy beasts called lawyers!

So, welcome aboard the _Maleficent_—and batten down the hatches!

Chapter 1: A Curious Key

The seas have forever been tormented by the slap of pirate's ships to the waves. Since man first climbed into boats and set sail, there have been crews and captains and Jolly Rogers unique. Sora knew this as he stared out into the open sea, a cabin boy along with his buddy Riku and their friend, the cook, Kairi. He dared them to come and attack the _Valiant_. Not a ship in the sea could catch her, nor a man sink her.

Riku tapped him on the shoulder and nodded toward the bow of the ship. Captain Jun directed orders, as any sea-worthy and ship-worthy and crew-worthy as ever there was a captain. Captain Jun was known for sailing through known pirate's territory without ever being boarded by pirates. She had outmaneuvered every pirate that had ever dared cross paths with the _Valiant_.

"Cabin boys!" She called over the heads of the other shipmates. "Go fetch Tiddler, he's in the galley again!"

Sora nodded and took off at a pleasant jog down into the bulkhead, where the galley and the crew's quarters lay. Tiddler was gnawing on a bit of tack. His job, as the boatswain, was to maintain the ship's sails. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at his job because he was always in the galley eating something or other.

"Mr. Tiddler, Captain Jun is calling," Sora said, nodding toward the upper deck. "I think the foresail has come loose from the boom again, sir."

"Agh! That blasted foresail, just as I was gettin' the best of this ole stale bread, I was, too!" Tiddler slammed the tack down onto a tin plate and grabbed his hat. He shoved past Sora and up onto the deck. Sora could hear Captain Jun tearing into him about leaving the sails unattended for so long again.

"He's not a very good maintenance person. Tiddler, I mean." Kairi came round the galley table, drying her hands off again. "Supper will be ready in a while. Why can't he wait till it's done like everyone else. Our tack supply is almost gone!"

Sora shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe it's kinda like everybody else can't wait till land is in sight, but nobody says anything." He grinned as Kairi laughed.

"That may be true." She sighed. "I'll have to have a word with the Captain at any rate. He can't just keep eating up the tack supply. We'll die of starvation before we get to the islands."

"Makes you wish we could hire a new—"

Sora didn't know quite what had happened, other than Kairi and he had been knocked to the floor. He helped Kairi to her feet, only to have them both be knocked against a wall again.

"Wait here," he said. "You'll be safer here."

Kairi nodded, watching as he all but crawled up the stairs to keep from falling again. At the top, Sora yelled back down to her. "PIRATES! Hide, Kairi!"

While she did, he charged up on deck to see what use he could be to the Captain and the rest of the crew. The _Valiant_ had several large holes in her side—cannon holes. She still floated fine, but that was the least of their troubles. The pirates were preparing to board them. The signature on the side of the smaller craft was unmistakable. The _Maleficent_ was one of the sea's toughest crew of pirates.

And they were going to board the _Valiant_.

"Cabin boy!" Captain Jun made her way through her crew, all of whom were lined up and prepared for battle. Cutlasses and swords and pistols drawn, not a man or a woman was backing down without a fight. "Sora. Take this. Keep it. Hide it. Don't let anyone see it, especially not the pirates." She pressed a small trinket into his hands, though he didn't take the time to study it before stuffing it in his pocket. "Take Riku and Kairi in the dinghy and get out of here! If we fight off the pirates, return. If not…save yourselves."

"But Captain—!"

"Don't question my orders, cabin boy!" Captain Jun shouted. "Now move! Move it!"

And without hesitation, Sora raced down into the galley again, grabbed Kairi's hand, and pulled her up onto the deck. She sputtered and queried, but he wouldn't answer until they were safely off the ship. He grabbed Riku's hand, and the three of them lowered a dinghy, and the three floated off away from the Valiant, but still out of the pirate ship's line of sight.

Riku rounded on Sora. "Why did you drag us both off?"

"The Captain ordered me to," Sora said. "She said to keep us, and whatever it is she gave me, safe from them." He nodded toward the other side of the _Valiant_. He didn't even have to do that for his friends to know who he was referring to.

"What did she give you?" Riku asked.

"I don't know. I shoved it in my pocket before I even looked at it proper."

"Then look at it now!" Kairi said, incredulous.

Sora reached in his pocket and pulled out the trinket. It was a small silver key on a black cord, ornately decorated with several tiny rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. The three of them stared at it, dumbfounded. What was really worth Captain Jun's life over a stupid little key? Sure, it was covered in jewels. But it wasn't all that important, to the eyes of the three teenagers in the dank little dinghy.

Sora pocketed it again, and stared up at the ship they'd just basically abandoned. He wasn't too worried. After all, there was _some_ reason that Captain Jun and her crew had avoided being boarded by pirates, right? But as he watched, the pirates seemed to kill more and more of the crew. Tiddler the boatswain was run through with a cutlass. Ming the deck officer was shot with a pistol. It seemed to never end, until, at last, the three heard splashes on the other side of the ship.

The pirates didn't seem to notice them at all. For over an hour, the three teenagers watched the pirates move treasures and books and maps over onto the _Valiant_. They dared not move or speak, in fear that the spell or whatever it was keeping them safe would break. They heard the pirates laughing and shouting and opening up their watered-down rum. Kairi growled deep in her throat as they ate the dinner she'd been preparing for the sailors who were now at the bottom of Davy Jones.

After only a few moments more, the pirates fixed the foresail and were off in the _Valiant_. They had successfully commandeered the last ship to have had a reputation against pirates. Sora felt miserable, thinking that there should have been something he could have done. He sighed and looked up at the pirate's abandoned ship.

"Well…anyone think they know how to drive one of these?"

"I've seen Tiddler about the decks sometimes," Riku said. "I think I can handle the sails. At least till we find an island."

Kairi sighed. "Yeah…I bet anything the only reason they took our vessel is because they ran out of food."

The three teenagers slowly peddled their little dinghy over to the pirate's ship. It was covered in stains that Sora didn't want to think about. The sails were dirty, but they were well-made and ready to be unfurled. This ship was definitely not a three-person sailboat, but the teenagers knew better than to curse their luck. They _could_ have just been left in the middle of the ocean with just a dinghy.

Riku wasn't very good at working the sails, but he was better than Sora or Kairi could do. The three set off with only one chart aboard the ship—a chart of the area they were in, lucky enough. Since the charts had already been laid out for the journey to the island only another day's sailing away, Sora thought surely they had just not needed the chart. But he and Kairi made the best estimate they could for the nearest island.

It was almost uncharted for its size, and because it was uninhabited. But it was close enough that they could restore the shelves of the ship and decide what to do next. For, as Kairi had predicted, the ship was all but barren of this very small thing known as food. There was enough watered rum to last for a couple more days, but only for the three of them. No wonder the pirates had been so eager for a new ship.

"So, what do you think is so important about this key that the late captain gave it to Sora to save?" Riku asked, holding up the tiny thing. "It doesn't even look large enough for a normal door lock."

"So maybe it's for something smaller?" Kairi said. "We ought to find a crew. Clean up this ship, sand down those awful stains. The pirates left enough behind for us to do all that."

"With that much booty, of course they could afford to leave behind a small fortune," Sora grumbled. "No wonder they needed a larger ship. They probably had too much money and were sinking, too."

"Well, whatever _their_ reasons were for taking the _Valiant_, we have enough to take this ship and the leftover money," Kairi said. "So what do you guys say? We go for this or what?"

"Yeah. I'm in." Riku placed his hand at the center of the captain's blank desk. "What about you, Sora? You in?"

"Captain Jun gave her life for this thing. Of course I'm in," Sora grinned.

The three shook hands, one atop the other. Kairi, always the cool-headed one, said: "Then let's get restocked, and then we'll head for the islands. Surely King Mickey has a few extra hands around who would love to help us out."

"The King has always helped us before!" Sora said.

"Yeah. One more adventure to go."

The three laughed and climbed back out onto the open-air cockpit to steer the ship.

So…was it awesome or should I slink back out the back door as if I never came back? O.o


	2. A Sleeping Flower

Hey, all! I guess I wasn't missed very much, after all. Oh, well. Maybe I can get some new fans, then. . 

Last chapter, Captain Jun ordered Sora to take a mysterious key and his friends Kairi and Riku safely off the attacked _Valiant._ He followed her orders and now Kairi, Riku, and Sora have taken the abandoned pirate's ship and are sailing toward King Mickey's Castle. They are in high hopes that the King will know something about the mysterious key…

Disclaimer: I no own them, you no sue me. Savvy?

Chapter 2: Sleeping Flower

The trio wasn't very good at sailing. Often, the ship would lose wind and Riku and Sora would climb up into the shrouds and spreaders, up the masts and down the booms. On one such occasion, Sora had just finished tying off the stay sail when another detached further up the boom. He sighed and shouted back to Riku.

"No wonder Tiddler had so much trouble being the boatswain! This thing falls apart every three seconds!"

"I don't think that's it," Riku said, hanging upside down from the bowsprit just ahead of him. "I think the pirates had a neglectful boatswain, too."

Sora laughed. "That might be." He glanced ahead of Riku, beyond the end of the flying jib, beyond the bowsprit. "Hey…it's land! Look, look! Land, Riku!"

"You know what to do, then!" Riku said, laughing at his excited companion. "Yo, Kairi! Kairi! Listen to this!"

Sora grinned and shouted to the sails: "Land, ho!"

Sure enough, there on the horizon was the faint outline of a small island. They had probably been within sight of it for hours, not noticing it while they'd fixed each sail along the bowsprit properly. Riku and Sora slid down the bowsprit where Kairi was waiting.

"We did it!" Kairi shouted. "Now all we have to do is anchor her, gather some supplies, and then set sail again for another island. It shouldn't be too hard."

They dropped anchor and waited for an hour or so to make certain that the ship wouldn't drift while they were away. Once assured of that, they debated leaving one of them behind to guard the ship—but decided against it. There were only three of them, after all.

Using their own dinghy, which had fit remarkably well to the pirate's ship, the trio rowed ashore and set about gathering water, food for the short trip over. They also gathered some lumber and a bit of gumtack from the trees. Whatever they could get for free, they would. The gumtack would prevent leaks in the ship, and there were probably quite a few of those already.

It took barely a few hours to gather all they needed. Sora and company were just about to head back out when a strange girl fell from the trees. She was wearing odd clothes, made of a material none of them had ever seen before. She had very short, curly, honey-gold colored hair that curled around her face.

And she was, absurdly enough, fast asleep.

"I wonder who she is? I didn't see another ship. She must have been marooned here," Kairi said, shivering slightly at the thought.

"Whoever she is, she can't have been here too long," Sora said. "I mean, look at her. Her clothes aren't even worn out, even a little. They look as though the tailor barely finished sewing them!"

Just then, the trio heard several voices shouting. "Sakura! Sakura, where are you?"

"Moko-chan is worried! What if we don't find Sakura-chan?"

Sora and Riku exchanged glances. Kairi, however, called out: "Hello! We have a girl here!"

Sora and Riku weren't sure whether to hush her or shout themselves. They were saved the choice when two men and a boy their age, and a small white puffball appeared through the thickets. They were wearing the same strange clothes as the girl who was asleep at their feet. The white puffball shouted.

"Hurray! Hurray! Mokona found Sakura-chan!"

"No, you didn't," said a tall, dark, and frankly scary-looking man. He hit the white puffball over the head.

"Thank you for finding her," said a young man, about the same age as the trio and the sleeping girl. He had messy, sandy-brown colored hair, a few shades lighter than Sora's, and amber eyes. "We are grateful to you. Could you please tell us where we are?"

"An almost-uncharted deserted island in the middle of the Atlantic," Riku said dryly.

The four members of the other party seemed startled by this information, but said nothing about how they'd ended up on the island. Sora drew his own conclusions—they'd been drugged and marooned, and probably separated to cause further punishment. At least they all seemed okay.

"Listen. We need crew, and you guys probably want off this island, right?" Sora said, thinking fast. "We're headed for King Mickey's Castle, on the Isle of Disney. If you want to join the passage that far, we'll be glad to have you."

Kairi glanced between Sora and Riku, uncertain of what to say. It was obvious the way Riku was looking at Sora that he didn't agree with allowing these people aboard their ship. She wasn't too keen on the black-haired man, either, but the others seemed to be perfectly safe. The last person in the other's group was also a man, but seemed the complete opposite of the black-haired, red-eyed man. He had pale brownish-blond hair and crystal-clear blue eyes—the color of the sea, unlike Sora's royal blues.

Kairi made up her mind. "Of course. You should come with us. After all, you never know when you'll get another ship out here. And at least on the Isle of Disney, you'll have a chance to find another home—or wherever."

"Mokona likes the red-haired girl!" The white fluffball shouted, leaping onto Kairi's head and hugging her neck half-way round with tiny round paws. "Wants to stay with her!"

The quiet one with light hair laughed. "Moko-chan, you should ask her first before jumping on her."

Kairi laughed. "Um…no, it's okay." She reached up and shook the white fluffball's paw, smiling lightly. "I'm Kairi."

"Mokona Modoki is my name! But you can call me Mokona!" Kairi laughed at the little thing's loud voice and energy.

"Like I said, I'm Kairi," she said, glancing up at the remaining three. "This is Sora, and Riku."

"I'm Syaoran. This is Fai-san and Kurogane-san. And Princess Sakura is our sleeping friend." He was still knelt down on the dirt of the forest floor with her, cradling her gently in his arms. Kairi could see the devotion in his eyes. It was obvious that he loved her—but apparent that something was wrong. She could see it in all of them.

"We're looking for something," Syaoran continued. "That's why we're here."

"We are, too, sort of," Sora said. "Come on. Let's get back to the ship. We'll need more supplies, though, since we've got eight mouths instead of three now."

Sora led the way back to the ship with half of Kairi's supplies, Syaoran carrying Sakura, and Riku carrying his share and the other half of Kairi's. Kairi stayed behind with Fai, Mokona, and Kurogane to retrieve more supplies. Once Syaoran and Sakura were on board the ship, Sora and Riku would come back to help carry the rest of the supplies back to the ship.

Once all supplies, persons, and fluffballs were back aboard the ship, Riku, Sora, and Kurogane weighed the anchor and they were off again. Fai climbed up the shrouds to help unfurl the sails. They caught a good wind and the ship was sailing at last. The tiny island that had been their small haven for such a short amount of time was soon far behind them.

Leaving the group of seven (minus the slumbering Sakura) to conversation.

"This is actually the pirates' ship," Kairi explained about the odd stains around the deck. She turned the rudder slightly to catch a bit more of the drift. "They killed all others aboard our ship, the _Valiant_, and abandoned this one in favor of ours. We managed to hide and then take it after they'd left."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Syaoran said honestly. Sora smiled, and found himself glad that he had invited them aboard. "Are you going after the pirates that killed them?"

"No!" Kairi shouted, turning eyes toward her. "I-I mean…no. That's not our goal." She studied the other group, and knew somehow that they wouldn't tell anyone about anything they had to say. She had a feeling that they knew a lot less about her world and way of life than they let on. "We're looking for something…we're not quite sure where it is, or why it's there. Our Captain died giving us a clue to it, so it must be important."

Fai hugged her with one arm. "Anything worth dying for is a thing worth living for."

"She gave it to me," Sora said. He could hear Riku grumbling softly, and knew that he didn't agree with telling these strangers about the key. "It's a key. To something. We don't know what to, or why Captain Jun had it, or why…anything, really."

"Then why are you looking for whatever it is?" Kurogane asked.

Sora thought for a minute. "I don't know, really. It's just…something _asked_ me to. Inside. I dunno how to describe it. You just gotta feel it to know what I'm talking about."

Kairi nodded. "It's the same thing I felt, about telling you guys what it was we were doing. Like it's…destiny."

Fai chuckled softly. "Mokona, do you suppose this could have anything to do with Sakura-chan's feather?"

Mokona hummed slightly. "I feel the power coming from that key. It's possible. Yes."

"Sorry…but feather?" Riku leaned over a taut rope.

Syaoran dissolved into the explanation, with intermittent points from Kurogane and Fai both. How they were looking for Sakura's feathers, which were her memories. They were also quite powerful, and had made remarkable things happen. Like made a man appear alive, power whole city blocks (whatever that meant), and cause whirlwinds. The trio were mesmerized by the idea.

"So you think the key Captain Jun gave Sora might be the key that leads to Sakura's feather, then?" Riku asked. He wasn't too against the group of five now that he knew what was up with them, and why they were so strange.

"I think it is, yes," Fai said. "Mokona's senses never lie. I like going with my instincts on this particular chase."

"Then you should stick with us," Sora said. "We'll help you find Sakura's feather. Count on it!"

With that, they had to "adjourn" their meeting, because a sudden gale whipped the fore staysail from bowsprit.

CHAPTER END

The introduction of the Tsubasa cast was an idea that my brother had when I was making up this pirate's tale. I wanted something the key would go to that wouldn't seem too obvious to most people. So now we know what the key goes to—now how do we get there? Next time! King Mickey reveals that not all is as it seems…

Wondering what all these weird sailing terms are? Let me direct your attention to the site where I gained all of my pertinent information from— me lads and ladies! Just for your information, the ship they are aboard is called a schooner, which is basically a ship used during the age of the pirates—here about 16th century. But since I've got some artistic licenses, not everything is gonna be so 16th, if ya know what I mean. And remember! It's a SHIP, not a BOAT. Boats go ON ships, and ships sink boats!


End file.
